Raise your hand if you have nightmares. I’ll go first.
o/
Yeah, who hasn’t had nightmares? I mean, sure there are people who don’t remember their dreams and such, but technically everyone dreams. Those people just don’t know it, so when they wake up, it’s as if nothing happens. It’s all kind of strange when you think about it. And the crazy thing is that there’s a lot about the mind and dreams that even researchers still don’t entirely know to this day, but a general idea is that things we’re exposed to can affect and lead to them.
Some of the earliest nightmares I’ve ever had, though, are a little shady in that I can’t figure out what might’ve inspired some of them. And since I was a little kid, they freaked me out quite a bit at the time.
Now let’s dive right into the nightmare world.
STREET GHOSTS
This is the first nightmare I ever had, and it always started with me in the baby-seat of my parents’ car as they would be driving. During this, there were a lot of weird creepy ghost people on the road trying to grab us. My mom or dad would have to open the door and get some kind of weapon they’d have next to them, and use it to kill the ghost people. As my parents would get rid of them, I would hear these loud disturbing wailing sounds non-stop that always terrified me. It’s as if these creepy ghost people would follow us on any road in an attempt to reach in and take me away.
I’m not entirely sure what inspired this, but because this was the first nightmare I ever had, I’m guessing that I saw my parents vacuuming from the backseat, and maybe my brain interpreted that as a weapon to fight ghosts in the nightmare world. And maybe the idea of ghost people was something that I overheard while someone was watching a horror movie.
Those are just my guesses as to what might’ve caused this one. This was a really odd one and it was actually a recurring dream.
They say that a child’s memory starts developing around the age of 3, so this was just around the time when my brain’s memory function started to kick in. And because we sleep nearly everyday as a baby and toddler, it’s almost like this phase was a never-ending nightmare where I’d always see my parents sucking away evil monsters with a car vacuum until one day, the whole consciousness thing kicks in, I’m not having this nightmare anymore, and I start watching some friggin’ cartoons. Weird huh?
Yeah well the brain is weird, so we’re all weird.
THE DOG WALKER
This is one of the stranger ones I can remember from early on, purely because I cannot for the life of me figure out what inspired it. But basically, this was a recurring scary dream in which I would be watching a movie set on a dark stormy night. I’d see these streets getting drenched in rain as weird ominous music would start, and a creepy voice-over would say something about a mysterious old man in a trench coat who was always out walking his dog. I don’t remember the exact words that were said, but it amounted to how he was “just going around on another night.” It was as if what he was doing was ordinary to him, and yet it was creepy the way this was all unfolding. The mood was unsettling every time I’d have this dream. But that wasn’t the only thing. You know what really put me off about it?
The dog that the old man would take out for a walk always had his mouth locked wide open to where it couldn’t close its mouth. He wasn’t dead, he was just unable to close his mouth and would always be in pain. Despite that, it would go with him everywhere.
Just thinking about this one is always discomforting, especially since I love dogs and can’t stand seeing them in pain. Having this nightmare at an early age didn’t result in me screaming upon waking up, it was more like the feeling of being afraid of this guy and what he did to other dogs. The whole somber nature of it, plus the scary mood with the thunderstorm made for an extremely off-putting dream.
Another odd thing about it is that the old man never spoke. He always had this casual vibe with how he’d carry himself while walking the dog. It felt like he knew he was frightening people, and he’d just continue doing this.
Overall, this was a pretty creepy one and I actually haven’t had it since.
THE SHADOW THING
Not much of a creepy title but oh well. Anyway, this is a pretty short one. It started out fine where I was at a party of some sort, goofing around. Things were normal, with people having fun and enjoying each other’s company. I see other kids playing around, and then I join in and they’re doing funny dances and pretending to be scary with their shadows.
So then after that, I go into a room where I see my shadow, and I decide to goof around and make some silly noises like I’m pretending to be a monster or something. Then I stop for a moment and just relax as I listen to everyone having fun.
And then suddenly, my shadow turns into a freaky disfigured version of myself that’s looking right at me. It was so random and threw me off, so I screamed my head off and ran around while freaking out.
Like with the dog walker nightmare, I can’t figure out what inspired this one. It doesn’t really make any sense when I think about it. But then again, many of these things rarely ever make even a little sense. Thinking about what might have caused this one is still a bit of a mystery to me.
But yeah, not much to add to this one. It scared me real good at the time.
So those are just a few of many nightmares I had as a kid. There are definitely more, so I’ll have to share those in the future. It’s weird that I haven’t dived into the details of these in a long time, but at the same time this was oddly fun. If any of you have had strange nightmares, feel free to share them in the comments below.
Until next time, sleep well and always expect the unexpected. See ya! o/
Kasey Lewis - Actor, Writer, Creator 